Dead Men's Respite
Description Dead Men's Respite is a an ancient Nordic tomb located Southwest of Morthal on the bank of River Hjaal in Hjaalmarch Hold. The tomb is the final resting place of King Olaf. It is here that the player is sent to complete the initiation quest, Tending the Flames that you get in the Bard's College in Solitude. Dead Man's Respite is also a possible location for the Companions' Radiant Quest: Trouble in Skyrim. Walkthrough At the beginning of the dungeon the player will see a ghost, but will be unable to interact with it. There is a Ruby Dragon Claw to collect. Taking the claw will unlock the door, and release four enemies into the room. This is one of many traps to be found along the way. It is quite simple to kill all four Draugr enemies in this room while sneaking, before picking up the Claw, while they are asleep. There is an Iron Door on the left of this first room with some minor loot. Moving Walls Room Following the hallway, the player will come to a burial room and see the ghost disappear through a wall. This section of the tomb is a small puzzle as some of the walls are actually rotating doorways activated by a pull chain. Activating the pull chain will change the configuration of rooms, opening some and blocking others. Going Down Eventually the player comes to a room with two circular grates in the floor. After defeating the two large Frostbite Spiders that drop from the ceiling, open the grate on the far side of the room by activating the chain to the right of your entrypoint.** Following the watery passage leads to a large, two-story room. Walk up the wooden ramp on the left, but take care before opening the cage-like door: the door is rigged with an adept-level trap. Activate it in the bottom left corner of the door, like always, to avoid the 9 pendulum axes. If you happened to miss the trap and activate it anyway, leave your companion behind and sprint / Whirlwind Sprint your way to the end and disable the trap by pulling the chain on the pillar in front of you. climb up the stairs and through the Iron Door*. *(Not a new game cell.) ** Make sure you have your partner(s) following you at this point. Otherwise you'll be stuck alone through a rest of this dungeon. (as you can imagine, I happened to forget that i placed my partner on wait so then he wouldnt continue to activate the fire trap as i sniped the spiders when I jumped through.) Haven't confirmed that there is a way back up from this point in the dungeon, without running through the rest. ~ Algonian player (PC) Past the Iron Door Past the iron door the player will discover an Arcane Enchanter and a Sealed Door that is currently inaccessible. To the right of this and down the slope, more rooms containing draugr bodies can be found and looted, but only one will be hostile until you pass through here again on your way back (the 2 standing in the walls will awaken then). The Draugr Warlord will come for you as soon as you enter the room, but dealing with him should be fairly simple as long as you have a few potions and keep your distance. The left side of the room he is found in contains a floor trap switch, a draugr body, a Grand Soul Gem, a Common Soul Gem, a stamina potion and a Scroll of Circle of Healing. Continuing through the right side will bring the player to a room with another circular grate in the floor. An expert locked door with a master locked chest behind it can be found before it. Edit from Algonian player: (PC) The Draugr Warlord is just a Restless Draugr. Of course, this may be level dependent for I was level 11. This guy can also catch you offguard but if you through an arrow into the area down the stairs you can get him to come out. (he scared the crap out of me, and killed me the first time i went through here) Also I believe that the gems you can get from the room to the left is also level dependent. I recieved a petty and lesser soul gem. In the room with the circular grate, cage doors will open and about 6 Restless Draugr will come through (must be confirmed if level-dependent: level 37 at time of writing this (Same at level 46)). A trapped chest in one of the back rooms contains some very minor loot. Pull the chain to open the grate and proceed. CONFIRMED by Algonian player: (PC) This is not level dependent, played at level 11, 6 dragur came out (2 restless). Easily soloable if you have a good Sneak skill and your a pretty good shot. I had one run right past me and didnt even see me. Of course the draugr took their time in coming out (which may be whats level dependent). Finding the Ghost The player will ultimately be led to Svaknir's ghost, as well as his corpse. The corpse clutches King Olaf's Verse and the player must take the book to continue the journey. Svanik's ghost will disappear, but the player can find it by returning to the sealed door. The Sealed Door Behind this door will be a puzzle door and the player must arrange the pictures on the door to match the symbols on the dragon claw in order to enter the next room. (Wolf, Eagle, Wolf). Past the door is King Olaf's burial room. The ghost of Svaknir calls upon King Olaf, causing waves of Draugr to attack. Svaknir will help the player fight the Draugr and King Olaf One-Eye will appear to join the fight. After the player and Svaknir's ghost defeat Olaf, Svaknir's ghost pulls out a flute, plays a few notes, and disappears now that he is finally at peace. At this end of the room is a Word Wall. The player can either loot the key off Olaf's body or pick a Master level lock to go through the door, where they will find a small room with treasure. Using the lever will unlock the next door, and the player will find themselves back in the first room of the dungeon. Notable Items *Ruby Dragon Claw *Arcane Enchanter *Spell Tome: Soul Trap *Word of Power, Tempest, Whirlwind Sprint *Speech Skill Book: "The Buying Game" - in the rotating doors section Notes *When dropping down the hole into the water, your follower may need a nudge first. *If you go before the Bard's College quest line to recover King Olaf's verse for the Winterhold College Library quest, the ruby claw door will not open. (Note: This is not always the case. Demonstrated on the 360 & PS3)(Also seen in PC) *The draugr won't attack until the player has fully entered Olaf's burial chamber. While standing in the doorway, you can easily snipe most of the slumbering draugr while they sit on their thrones, making the final battle considerably less hectic. *If your follower doesn't fully enter King Olaf's chamber before the battle starts, only killing King Olaf will open the door to let your follower in. *If you have not completed any quest for the Greybeards The Dragon Claw door will not open. (Not yet confirmed.) Confirmed: PS3/PC you '''can '''enter the Dragon Claw door before doing quests for the Greybeards. *Sometimes when you reach the Sealed Door, Svaknir will be running against the wall opposite. Because your character cannot interact with him, this means your quest ends here. A good idea to prevent this is to make a clean save outside of the tomb. (Note: I saw this on my unpatched PS3 version of the game.) *If you are killed after King Olaf has been awoken and load a save from before you entered the room, when you return you may find that all the draugr (including King Olaf) are awake instead of coming in waves as normal. This can make the battle quite challenging, especially for characters with low crowd control ability. (360) *As with any dungeon, It is wise to save your progress periodically. *If you lose your partner (as in left him behind) back by the large spider room, the last battle is very hard to complete. Snipe most of the draugr before entering the room (point 3) is the best way to solve this problem. Also you will have to go back through the dungeon to retrieve your partner, so if you sneaked by any enemy at any time during the dungeon before the spider part, make sure you have sneak on again (they'll still be there). Gallery Olfafs_verse.jpg Olaf's_last_battle.jpg Svaknir_opens_door.jpg Category:Skyrim: Locations Category:Locations Category:Skyrim: Quest Locations Category:Skyrim: Hjaalmarch Hold Locations Category:Skyrim: Tombs Category:Skyrim: Word Wall Locations